The strength of Ander & Santi Were Here lies in its authentic and relatable characters. Ander and Santi, the main protagonists, are beautifully developed, with their unique struggles and vulnerabilities laid bare. Their individual journeys intertwine and unfold with grace, allowing readers to empathize with their joys, sorrows, and the challenges they face in understanding their identities and reconciling their pasts.

Villa's writing style is evocative and filled with heartfelt emotions, capturing the essence of the characters and the setting. The portrayal of the small Texas town is vivid and immersive, painting a vivid picture of the community and its dynamics. The author's attention to detail creates an atmosphere that envelops readers, making it easy to emotionally invest in the story.

The exploration of themes such as grief and loss is handled with sensitivity and nuance. Villa delves into the complexities of these emotions, illustrating the profound impact they have on individuals and their relationships. Through Ander and Santi's experiences, the novel examines the different ways people cope with loss and how it can shape their perceptions of themselves and others.

WHEN I TELL YOU….i was was completely floored by the representation in this story. I cried, laughed, had many epiphanies lol This story is everything. I’m so glad to be able to have experienced an enby story done well and not just tokenized. I will continue recommending to anyone who loves a coming of age queer story about poc kids. also c the m was a total mood for all my latinxs.


thank you netgalley for the ALC

This book features wonderful representation and discussions about art, queerness, and being undocumented. I liked how the book started off with Ander taking a gap year before college to pursue an art residency program. They were creating art pieces around their hometown for a nonprofit as a way to discover what they want to do and be as an artist, despite their parents being against the idea. This opened up a lovely discussion about choosing your own path and trying to find yourself amongst the expectations of your parents, and I really enjoyed how the book opened with this!!

Unfortunately, I did DNF this book shortly after that, around the 16% mark. I found the dialogue to be a bit cringey and awkward at the start and the pacing was very, very slow. After a few weeks of trying to get into the book, I decided that it was just not holding my attention and I should pick it back up at a later date :/. (As an example of the slow pacing: we get glimpses of the love interest, Santi, a few times, but only around when I DNF’d did we actually get to really meet him.) I do plan on trying this book again in the future because the premise is very intriguing and the representation is great, but I need something more fast-paced at the moment.

**I paired this ARC with the ALC because I prefer to read and listen at the same time.** The narrator, Avi Roque, did a beautiful job performing the story and is part of why I was holding off on tabling this book for the time being. It truly did feel like a performance rather than a simple narration, and I love when audiobooks bring stories alive like that.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press/Wednesday Books, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for this ARC/ALC!

I really enjoyed this one! I loved the non-binary + Mexican representation. Ander + Santi were such a great couple. I found myself rooting for them for the entire book! I think this book had a good balance between lighthearted + heavy moments. The only reason I did not give it 5 stars is because I think it was a bit too long. There were some parts that dragged.

PLEASE judge this book by its cover because it is just as beautiful and moving inside as it is outside!!! This is a stunning and heart-wrenching YA story that is unfortunately very timely. I felt everything Ander and Santi felt. Do yourself a favor and read this book. The narrator was incredible. Thank you to NetGalley for the audio ARC!

“Te quiero. Through happiness and destruction.”

Ander & Santi are one of my new fav couples🥺 I was rooting for them from the very start!

This is a contemporary queer romance that follows Ander (they/them) who is an artist working for their families taqueria and painting murals around the city, when in comes Santi- the new waiter who isn’t so bad to look at. From there blooms the most beautiful relationship.

This was an emotional rollercoaster of a story because the love between both MCs was unmatched but certainly tested. One second I was lost in their bittersweet romance and then instantly snapped into stress mode. Their love is so raw and honest, and through anything it comes out on top.

“This whole neighborhood showing up for us. Fighting for us. For someone who’s always called this place home and another who deserves a place to call home.”

Read if you like:
•Amazing Rep including: Mexican-American gay non-binary MC, undocumented queer Mexican MC
•Current issues surrounding being undocumented living in America/ICE
•YA/NA Romance tempered with real life issues
•Mexican Foodies 🤤
•Found family vibes
•HEA but make it emo
•Supportive family

"And with every touch, I am reminded that we are powerful. That our existence is powerful. That we can be both protector and protected."

Thank you so so much @netgalley for the eARC, and @wednesdaybooks for the gifted hardback for my shelf🥺 I am obsessed with the artwork that was included! Thank you @jonnyinstas for writing such important and beautiful stories.

#bookstagram #bookreview #bookrecommendations #queerromance #queerreads #lgbtpride #readersofinstagram #pridereads #anderandsantiwerehere #jonnygarzavilla #yaqueerbooks #readreadread #readqueerallyear #nonbinary

Finding home. Falling in love. Fighting to belong.

The Santos Vista neighborhood of San Antonio, Texas, is all Ander Martínez has ever known. The smell of pan dulce. The mixture of Spanish and English filling the streets. And, especially their job at their family's taquería. It's the place that has inspired Ander as a muralist, and, as they get ready to leave for art school, it's all of these things that give them hesitancy. That give them the thought, are they ready to leave it all behind?

To keep Ander from becoming complacent during their gap year, their family "fires" them so they can transition from restaurant life to focusing on their murals and prepare for college. That is, until they meet Santiago López Alvarado, the hot new waiter. Falling for each other becomes as natural as breathing. Through Santi's eyes, Ander starts to understand who they are and want to be as an artist, and Ander becomes Santi's first steps toward making Santos Vista and the United States feel like home.

Until ICE agents come for Santi, and Ander realizes how fragile that sense of home is. How love can only hold on so long when the whole world is against them. And when, eventually, the world starts to win.

𝘏𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘣𝘦𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘶𝘭!
What a great story, I loved it so much.
Full of culture, love, art and yummy food. A story about love and heartbreak that will steal your heart.

Thank you @wednesdaybooks and @netgalley for this gifted copy.

This is a wonderful exploration of the nuance of non-binary life on the US-Mexican border and the complex ways US immigration policy affects real people. It's also a relatable, sweet, and sexy coming-of-age remance.

What an amazingly well written book. The story was light hearted and wholesome but also extremely heavy and giving you a lot to think about? I know it’s a contradiction but the author is so good they just made it feel that way. I loved all the queer and Latinx rep and I found incredibly well done how they got a language like Spanish that is intrinsically a gender based language and made it gender neutral to be respectful to the non binary character and even in a Latinx family no one had an issue adapting to it. As a latina it really warmed my heart because I know how closed minded our community can be.
This book made me laugh (I truly love Ander), and cry (Santi needs to be protected with the biggest tightest hug), and… fuck ICE.

To date, I believe Aristotle and Dante discover the Secrets of the Universe to be one of the most important and fundamental cornerstone of not only my reading journey, but of my adolescence. So, whenever I hear something compared to Aristotle and Dante, I always give it a reluctant try. Thankfully, Ander & Santi Were Here lived up to every expectation and blew me away!

Not only did I find the characters incredible diverse, with it's genuine Latinx and queer representation, but the way that it was presented was incredibly vivid! It's easy to fall into the trap of writing a non-binary character that is sassy and a diva, but I found Ander to be so rich in their artistry and growth that I could tell the author held great respect for Under. And Santi was a tragic character that also had so much joy to him!

While the romance felt a little insta-lovey, I will continue to root for the romance of Ander & Santi, as well as keep Jonny Garza Villa on my author radar moving forward!

I am still SOBBING. This was brutal and this was beautiful. The love story had me from the beginning. If you loved Aristotle and Dante discover the secrets of the Universe, you will love this. Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for the opportunity to listen in exchange for a review!

San Antonio has always been home for Ander. It is the place they were born and raised, where they have spent days helping in their family’s taqueria, and the place that inspires their art. In the gap year Ander takes between high school and college, their family fires them to force them to focus on preparing for college. But that focus is broken as soon as Ander meets the new waiter, Santi. Santi and Ander fall for each other almost immediately and become inseparable. But when ICE comes looking for Santi, Ander begins to learn how fragile life, love, and home really can be. It begins to feel like Ander and Santi against the world.

I’m not sure I have the right words to accurately convey all of the feelings I have about this book. It is beautiful yet devastating, heart breaking yet full of hope. It is truly such a powerful story of young love. Jonny Garza Villa did a phenomenal job writing this story - the first part really brought you into their world. The taqueria, the murals, the characters - they all felt real and were so easy to imagine. In some ways this part of their story was monotonous and normal in the sense of it being a similar routine day after day, yet you could feel the connection growing as you felt a small undercurrent of tension begin to build.

But then he gets you in the second half of the book. That small spark ignites and it’s impossible to stop the drama from growing and spreading like wildfire. I had a sense of what was coming and wanted to stop it, but couldn’t, and when it did, it ripped my heart out. (Luckily by the end it was put back together again). There is so much power behind this book and the reality and messiness it depicts. Truly an incredible story.
Avi Roque did a phenomenal job with the narration of the audiobook.

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press, Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the advance copies.

This was such a beautiful and tender coming of age LGBTQIA story! Such a heartbreaking yet beautiful love story.

Audiobook Review:
Overall – 4
Performance – 5
Story – 3

I absolutely loved the audio performance and my rating is based mostly on that fact.

This is the first audiobook I’ve listened to performed by Avi Roque and I thought it was quite wonderful. If I had read this story with my eyes I would have been frustrated because I wouldn’t know the correct pronunciation of a lot of the words. That is a big reason why I love audiobooks, especially ones with words in a language other than English.

I was surprised by all of the sexual content in a book that was supposed to be a YA novel. I am way, way, way beyond my teen years and I know things have changed, but as much as I like spicy novels, I thought it was a bit too much for a YA story.

A review copy of the audiobook was provided by the publisher via NetGalley but this did not influence my opinion or rating of the book.

A bit back and forth on how I feel about this one, whereas, there are things I loved the things I didn't feel outweigh them, so, I'll settle for a three star.

Ander is a queer Mexican artist in the middle of a gap year when he meets Santiago. Now firstly, I loved the representation. Reading about young proud queer characters always makes me happy, especially Hispanic ones (being Hispanic myself). I loved the moments delving into Mexican culture, even the hardships were the most interesting aspects of the novel.

On a very personal note, the humor in this... It's very <i>now</i>. I'm not one to roll my eyes at pop-culture references because I get it, but the writing feels so current and cringy. I couldn't bare it. While the banter is cute and fun and does have a place in characterization, it goes on for too long, and I found myself bored waiting for the plot to happen. The book didn't sink its teeth into me with the plot or pacing, I neither cared for the romance aspected, unfortunately. A lot of YA relies on insta love/lust, I completely get why but I'm over it.

With that being said, here's the thing... if you want something simple to read that has loads of fluff and banter, that's an easy-going plot with maybe one or two difficult scenes that get resolved easily. If you want nonbinary Latine rep- then, yes! This is perfect. Sometimes it's fun to read about a world where everything just works out, and that's cool. I, however, want my characters to be flawed. I don't want THAT ending.

I do praise Jonny Garza Villa for writing this story. For writing these characters because despite my complaints, these characters deserve to be written, and I hope this opens the door for more stories like this.

About the audiobook:
I did really like Avi Roque's performance as Ander, his voice suited Ander's cadence and helped him feel realistic. His voice reminded me so much of Bretmen Rock- so if you enjoy him, you'll like the audiobook.

Enjoyed the audiobook, but will only purchase the book for my library. This book educated me about issues in the US that I have little knowledge of, so I appreciated that. The relationship between Ander and Santi was believable and super cute (not sickeningly so) and it was overall a good read.

I did not expect this book to be so emotional and deeply moving going into it, but it is one of the most beautiful depictions of young love I have ever read. Ander lives in San Antonio, Texas with their family. Ander works at the family taquería and also works as a muralist. They are set to go to art school in Chicago, but ultimately decide to take a gap year. Ander’s family “fires” them from the restaurant to make sure they focus on their art, which is what Ander sets out to do. Until they meet Santiago, the new waiter at the restaurant.

Ander and Santiago, also knows as Santi, fall deeply in love. Santi inspires Ander’s dreams in art and Ander works to help Santi feel like he is finally at home. The book is filled with intense passion, diverse representation and a sprinkle of fear. Fear because Santi is in the United States without documentation. And ICE agents know. And are targeting him.

I listened to the audio version and I highly recommend it. The entire book is told from Ander’s POV and the narrator made me feel like I was in the same room as Ander. The way the narrator made me feel Ander’s pain as intensely as their passion was incredible. This is one of those books that I would recommend everyone read because you learn so much about important issues in the context of a love story at the core.

dnf @ 30%
I really wanted to like this, but unfortunately I couldn’t stand the narrator. I’m sure there are people who would really love and appreciate this book, but ultimately, it wasn’t for me.

Sincere thanks to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the *FREE* review copy!

Now, I enjoyed a LOT about this book. Let’s start there.

I loved:

This book is so queer! Nonbinary, bisexual, gray ace and trans rep!

A beautiful, sincere, mutually respectful, fun & steamy romance between our nonbinary MC, Ander and his wonderful, male love interest, Santi.

Excellent narration.

All the wonderful, untranslated Spanish! It was especially great to hear on the audio.

Please note, I know a mix of school and various dialects of authentic Spanish with slang etc. I wouldn’t go as far to say that I am proficiently bilingual, but I’m getting back there. If you don’t speak any Spanish, or you speak very little school Spanish, you *will* miss out if you aren’t willing to do some googling.

A favorite line: “…the type of white women who only like their margaritas with sugar on the rim and think they can empathize with Brown people because they read American Dirt.”

I adored Ander’s family and friend group and all the support they had.

I thought the unflinching portrayal of ICE and their cruelty was so necessary (unlike ICE itself).

This book is bursting with family, food, art, music, and at least one literary reference that will hit home with a lot of Bookstas. You’ll get HUNGRY and maybe want to blast some reggaeton.

Ander finding his artist’s voice, his boundaries and calling out micro and macro aggressions and racism…

What I didn’t like:

I know Santi wasn’t our MC, but I wish the stories around his mother and sister weren’t so scant.

What I HATED:

It's 2023, ffs. Can we STOP making jokes/snide comments about incest? As a survivor, it always pulls me out of a story and taints the book. I didn't appreciate the wholly unnecessary crack about how incest happens to “some whites in Alabama and the royals”. Hurtful stereotypes don’t help any of us…

*Please* make a note of this, editors etc. at: Wednesday Books and Macmillan Audio and anyone else who can take that bit out of future printings and edit them out before publication/recording in the future.

Despite that, I still managed to love the book and each character. I’m still rooting for them.

⚠️CW/TWs: The aforementioned snide comment/joke about incest, racism, xenophobia, deportation, ICE, government/police brutality, murder, kidnapping, human trafficking, drugs, alcohol, underage drinking, death of a parent, grief, strong language, graphic sexual content…

Ander has decided to wait a year before going to college to figure what their art should be like, and that year will change their entire life. Turns out Ander's family doesn't want them to work the family's restaurant anymore so that they truly focus on art. And that's when Santi enters. He is hired in their stead and the two begin a friendship that turns into something else but it's not just all sunshine and rainbows as the two have to fight against more than anyone ever should.

I absolutely loved this book. It was emotional and impactful and captivating. I fell for Ander immediately, they were smart and dumb and flawed in the best way. I laughed, I cried, I loved this from beginning to end. I enjoyed the setting and the family relationships and the romance between Ander and Santi as well as all the friendships we got to witness. I also had a great time following Ander's artistic choices and career choices.
A big part of this book is also about immigration and how ICE shouldn't exist and it was as powerful as it was enraging. It made me so angry and I cried some. To me, that's one of the many reasons everyone should read this book. Truly a must read.
I also truly enjoy Jonny Garza Villa's writing and this second book was just as amazing as their first. I cannot wait for more.